State and St. Cloud leaders hold listening session on public safety

Attorney General Keith Ellison, Sen. Aric Putnam, DFL-St. Cloud, and St. Cloud State University President Dr. Robbyn Wacker hosted a listening session Monday in St. Cloud on public safety.

Described as a nonpartisan event, the panel spoke with community members at the Great River Regional Library about traffic and campus safety, crime, drug addiction, mental health, counseling and drug education needs in schools, homelessness and community initiatives.

Seventh Judicial District Chief Judge Sarah Hennesy was scheduled to attend the event, but was unable to make it, Putnam said.

Attendees discussed unsafe intersections, a drop in student housing versus nonstudent housing due to low enrollment numbers and concern for student safety around the St. Cloud State University area due to crime as housing has changed.

"It used to be really easy to fill all the houses and apartments down by St. Cloud State and a lot of landlords have abandoned renting to students because it's too hard and then converted to nonstudent housing, not because they wanted to, because they were forced to," said Plymouth resident Ryan LeMieux who rents properties to St. Cloud State students.

Attendees also discussed consequences for crime and possible options to support individuals with drug addiction or mental illness.

The system of bail and detention needs to be looked at, Ellison said. With COVID-19, measures of human welfare have gone in the wrong direction, Ellison said.

"Domestic violence goes up. Opioid use goes up, alcoholism goes up. Violence goes up. Road rage, traffic deaths. All this, I mean, it's just like COVID, we got locked down and the level of frustration, anxiety went up all at once. Now we've got to get it together," Ellison said.

Some of the money from recent settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors could help people get the support they need, such as housing, Ellison said.

"I wish we just had easy answers for all this. I can tell you the problem you're dealing with is not fair to you. It's not fair to the people who are having to deal with it every day. And we need better answers and I think one of them needs to be, you got to house these folk. And they need wraparound services because they clearly are not making it on their own and living well with others," Ellison said in response to concerns about crime.

Ellison announced in late February that opioid manufacturer Johnson & Johnson and three of the nation's largest opioid distributors, Cardinal Health, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen, approved a $26 billion settlement, including $303 million that will go to Minnesota, for prevention, recovery, harm reduction and other options to address the opioid epidemic, according to Ellison's office.

The amount the St. Cloud-area is estimated to receive over the 18-year term of settlements includes more than $5.36 million for Stearns County, more than $1.42 million for Benton County, more than $2.78 million for Sherburne County and more than $1.62 million for St. Cloud.

Wacker said she is excited to discuss how the community will work together to support each other and St. Cloud. The future of the university and the community is intertwined, Wacker said.

"The students have to feel welcome... and the city has to also be engaged as a partner and we do as well. So I actually am feeling like there's enough momentum at this point, kind of moving a little bit out of COVID, kind of, sort of, to be able to bring folks together and say, let's tackle this and let's work together," Wacker said. "There are resources. There are state, there are federal, there are city, university resources that we all can can bring to figure out what this looks like."

This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: State and St. Cloud leaders hold listening session on public safety